On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen entered the republican capital,
Nanking, and received a salute of twenty-one guns. He assumed the
presidency of the provisional government, swearing allegiance, and
taking an oath to dethrone the Manchus, restore peace, and
establish a government based upon the people's will. These objects
accomplished, he was prepared to resign his office, thus enabling
the people to elect a president of a united China. The first act of
the provisional government was to proclaim a new calendar
forthwith, January 1 becoming the New Year's Day of the
republic.

On January 5 was issued the following republican
manifesto:--

"To all friendly nations,--Greeting. Hitherto irremediable
suppression of the individual qualities and the national
aspirations of the people having arrested the intellectual, moral,
and material development of China, the aid of revolution was
invoked to extirpate the primary cause. We now proclaim the
consequent overthrow of the despotic sway of the Manchu dynasty,
and the establishment of a republic. The substitution of a republic
for a monarchy is not the fruit of transient passion, but the
natural outcome of a long-cherished desire for freedom,
contentment, and advancement. We Chinese people, peaceful and
law-abiding, have not waged war except in self-defence. We have
borne our grievance for two hundred and sixty-seven years with
patience and forbearance. We have endeavoured by peaceful means to
redress our wrongs, secure liberty, and ensure progress; but we
failed. Oppressed beyond human endurance, we deemed it our
inalienable right, as well as a sacred duty, to appeal to arms to
deliver ourselves and our posterity from the yoke to which we have
for so long been subjected. For the first time in history an
inglorious bondage is transformed into inspiring freedom. The
policy of the Manchus has been one of unequivocal seclusion and
unyielding tyranny. Beneath it we have bitterly suffered. Now we
submit to the free peoples of the world the reasons justifying the
revolution and the inauguration of the present government. Prior to
the usurpation of the throne by the Manchus the land was open to
foreign intercourse, and religious tolerance existed, as is shown
by the writings of Marco Polo and the inscription on the Nestorian
tablet at Hsi-an Fu. Dominated by ignorance and selfishness, the
Manchus closed the land to the outer world, and plunged the Chinese
into a state of benighted mentality calculated to operate inversely
to their natural talents, thus committing a crime against humanity
and the civilized nations which it is almost impossible to
extirpate. Actuated by a desire for the perpetual subjugation of
the Chinese, and a vicious craving for aggrandizement and wealth,
the Manchus have governed the country to the lasting injury and
detriment of the people, creating privileges and monopolies,
erecting about themselves barriers of exclusion, national custom,
and personal conduct, which have been rigorously maintained for
centuries. They have levied irregular and hurtful taxes without the
consent of the people, and have restricted foreign trade to treaty
ports. They have placed the likin embargo on merchandise,
obstructed internal commerce, retarded the creation of industrial
enterprises, rendered impossible the development of natural
resources, denied a regular system of impartial administration of
justice, and inflicted cruel punishment on persons charged with
offences, whether innocent or guilty. They have connived at
official corruption, sold offices to the highest bidder,
subordinated merit to influence, rejected the most reasonable
demands for better government, and reluctantly conceded so-called
reforms under the most urgent pressure, promising without any
intention of fulfilling. They have failed to appreciate the
anguish-causing lessons taught them by foreign Powers, and in
process of years have brought themselves and our people beneath the
contempt of the world. A remedy of these evils will render possible
the entrance of China into the family of nations. We have fought
and have formed a government. Lest our good intentions should be
misunderstood, we publicly and unreservedly declare the following
to be our promises:--

"The treaties entered into by the Manchus before the date of the
revolution, will be continually effective to the time of their
termination. Any and all treaties entered into after the
commencement of the revolution will be repudiated. Foreign loans
and indemnities incurred by the Manchus before the revolution will
be acknowledged. Payments made by loans incurred by the Manchus
after its commencement will be repudiated. Concessions granted to
nations and their nationals before the revolution will be
respected. Any and all granted after it will be repudiated. The
persons and property of foreign nationals within the jurisdiction
of the republic will be respected and protected. It will be our
constant aim and firm endeavour to build on a stable and enduring
foundation a national structure compatible with the potentialities
of our long-neglected country. We shall strive to elevate the
people to secure peace and to legislate for prosperity. Manchus who
abide peacefully in the limits of our jurisdiction will be accorded
equality, and given protection.

"We will remodel the laws, revise the civil, criminal,
commercial, and mining codes, reform the finances, abolish
restrictions on trade and commerce, and ensure religious toleration
and the cultivation of better relations with foreign peoples and
governments than have ever been maintained before. It is our
earnest hope that those foreign nationals who have been steadfast
in their sympathy will bind more firmly the bonds of friendship
between us, and will bear in patience with us the period of trial
confronting us and our reconstruction work, and will aid the
consummation of the far-reaching plans, which we are about to
undertake, and which they have long vainly been urging upon our
people and our country.

"With this message of peace and good-will the republic cherishes
the hope of being admitted into the family of nations, not merely
to share its rights and privileges, but to co-operate in the great
and noble task of building up the civilization of the world.

"Sun Yat-sen, President."

The next step was to displace the three-cornered Dragon flag,
itself of quite modern origin, in favour of a new republican
emblem. For this purpose was designed a flag of five
stripes,--yellow, red, blue, white, black,--arranged at right
angles to the flagstaff in the above order, and intended to
represent the five races--Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, Tibetan,
Mussulmans--gathered together under one rule.

On February 12, three important edicts were issued. In the
first, the baby-emperor renounces the throne, and approves the
establishment of a provisional republican government, under the
direction of Yuan Shih- k`ai, in conjunction with the existing
provisional government at Nanking. In the second, approval is given
to the terms under which the emperor retires, the chief item of
which was an annual grant of four million taels. Other more
sentimental privileges included the retention of a bodyguard, and
the continuance of sacrifices to the spirits of the departed Manchu
emperors. In the third, the people are exhorted to preserve order
and abide by the Imperial will regarding the new form of
government.

Simultaneously with the publication of these edicts, the last
scene of the drama was enacted near Nanking, at the mausoleum of
the first sovereign of the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644). Sun
Yat-sen, as provisional first president, accompanied by his Cabinet
and a numerous escort, proceeded thither, and after offering
sacrifice as usual, addressed, though a secretary, the following
oration to the tablet representing the names of that great
hero:--

"Of old the Sung dynasty became effete, and the Kitan Tartars
and Yuan dynasty Mongols seized the occasion to throw this domain
of China into confusion, to the fierce indignation of gods and men.
It was then that your Majesty, our founder, arose in your wrath
from obscurity, and destroyed those monsters of iniquity, so that
the ancient glory was won again. In twelve years you consolidated
the Imperial sway, and the dominions of the Great Yu were purged of
pollution and cleansed from the noisome Tartar. Often in history
has our noble Chinese race been enslaved by petty frontier
barbarians from the north. Never have such glorious triumphs been
won over them as your Majesty achieved. But your descendants were
degenerate, and failed to carry on your glorious heritage; they
entrusted the reins of government to bad men, and pursued a
short-sighted policy. In this way they encouraged the ambitions of
the eastern Tartar savages (Manchus), and fostered the growth of
their power. They were thus able to take advantage of the presence
of rebels to invade and possess themselves of your sacred capital.
From a bad eminence of glory basely won, they lorded it over this
most holy soil, and our beloved China's rivers and hills were
defiled by their corrupting touch, while the people fell victims to
the headman's axe or the avenging sword. Although worthy patriots
and faithful subjects of your dynasty crossed the mountain ranges
into Canton and the far south, in the hope of redeeming the
glorious Ming tradition from utter ruin, and of prolonging a thread
of the old dynasty's life, although men gladly perished one after
the other in the forlorn attempt, heaven's wrath remained
unappeased, and mortal designs failed to achieve success. A brief
and melancholy page was added to the history of your dynasty, and
that was all.

"As time went on, the law became ever harsher, and the meshes of
its inexorable net grew closer. Alas for our Chinese people, who
crouched in corners and listened with startled ears, deprived of
power of utterance, and with tongues glued to their mouths, for
their lives were past saving. Those others usurped titles to
fictitious clemency and justice, while prostituting the sacred
doctrines of the sages: whom they affected to honour. They stifled
public opinion in the empire in order to force acquiescence in
their tyranny. The Manchu despotism became so thorough and so
embracing that they were enabled to prolong their dynasty's
existence by cunning wiles. In Yung Cheng's reign the Hunanese
Chang Hsi and Tseng Ching preached sedition against the dynasty in
their native province, while in Chia Ch`ing's reign the palace
conspiracy of Lin Ching dismayed that monarch in his capital. These
events were followed by rebellions in Ss{u}-ch`uan and Shensi;
under Tao Kuang and his successor the T`ai-p`ings started their
campaign from a remote Kuangsi village. Although these worthy
causes were destined to ultimate defeat, the gradual trend of the
national will became manifest. At last our own era dawned, the sun
of freedom had risen, and a sense of the rights of the race
animated men's minds. In addition the Manchu bandits could not even
protect themselves. Powerful foes encroached upon the territory of
China, and the dynasty parted with our sacred soil to enrich
neighbouring nations. The Chinese race of to-day may be degenerate,
but it is descended from mighty men of old. How should it endure
that the spirits of the great dead should be insulted by the
everlasting visitation of this scourge?

"Then did patriots arise like a whirlwind, or like a cloud which
is suddenly manifested in the firmament. They began with the Canton
insurrection; then Peking was alarmed by Wu Yueh's bomb (1905). A
year later Hsu Hsi-lin fired his bullet into the vitals of the
Manchu robber-chief, En Ming, Governor of Anhui. Hsiung Cheng-chi
raised the standard of liberty on the Yang-tsze's banks; rising
followed rising all over the empire, until the secret plot against
the Regent was discovered, and the abortive insurrection in Canton
startled the capital. One failure followed another, but other brave
men took the place of the heroes who died, and the empire was born
again to life. The bandit Manchu court was shaken with pallid
terror, until the cicada threw off its shell in a glorious
regeneration, and the present crowning triumph was achieved. The
patriotic crusade started in Wu-ch`ang; the four corners of the
empire responded to the call. Coast regions nobly followed in their
wake, and the Yang-tsze was won back by our armies. The region
south of the Yellow River was lost to the Manchus, and the north
manifested its sympathy with our cause. An earthquake shook the
barbarian court of Peking, and it was smitten with a paralysis.
To-day it has at last restored the government to the Chinese
people, and the five races of China may dwell together in peace and
mutual trust. Let us joyfully give thanks. How could we have
attained this measure of victory had not your Majesty's soul in
heaven bestowed upon us your protecting influence? I have heard say
that the triumphs of Tartar savages over our China were destined
never to last longer than a hundred years. But the reign of these
Manchus endured unto double, ay, unto treble, that period. Yet
Providence knows the appointed hour, and the moment comes at last.
We are initiating the example to Eastern Asia of a republican form
of government; success comes early or late to those who strive, but
the good are surely rewarded in the end. Why then should we repine
to-day that victory has tarried long?

"I have heard that in the past many would-be deliverers of their
country have ascended this lofty mound wherein is your sepulchre.
It has served to them as a holy inspiration. As they looked down
upon the surrounding rivers and upward to the hills, under an alien
sway, they wept in the bitterness of their hearts, but to-day their
sorrow is turned into joy. The spiritual influences of your grave
at Nanking have come once more into their own. The dragon crouches
in majesty as of old, and the tiger surveys his domain and his
ancient capital. Everywhere a beautiful repose doth reign. Your
legions line the approaches to the sepulchre; a noble host stands
expectant. Your people have come here to-day to inform your Majesty
of the final victory. May this lofty shrine wherein you rest gain
fresh lustre from to-day's event, and may your example inspire your
descendants in the times which are to come. Spirit! Accept this
offering!"

We are told by an eye-witness, Dr Lim Boon-keng, that when this
ceremony was over, Sun Yat-sen turned to address the assembly. "He
was speechless with emotion for a minute; then he briefly declared
how, after two hundred and sixty years, the nation had again
recovered her freedom; and now that the curse of Manchu domination
was removed, the free peoples of a united republic could pursue
their rightful aspirations. Three cheers for the president were now
called for, and the appeal was responded to vigorously. The
cheering was taken up by the crowds below, and then carried miles
away by the thousands of troops, to mingle with the booming of
distant guns."